Tuberculosis and respiratory diseases
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Tuberc Respir Dis (Seoul) · May 2013
Usefulness of plasma procalcitonin to predict severity in elderly patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is one of the leading causes of death among the elderly. Several studies have reported the clinical usefulness of serum procalcitonin, a biomarker of bacterial infection. However, the association between the levels of procalcitonin and the severity in the elderly with CAP has not yet been reported. The aim of this study was to evaluate usefulness of procalcitonin as a predictor of severity and mortality in the elderly with CAP. ⋯ The levels of procalcitonin are more useful than the levels of CRP or WBC to predict the severity of CAP. However, there was no association between the levels of procalcitonin and mortality in the elderly.
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Tuberc Respir Dis (Seoul) · May 2013
A Case of Endobronchial Aspergilloma Associated with Foreign Body in Immunocompetent Patient without Underlying Lung Disease.
Aspergillus causes a variety of clinical syndromes in the lung including tracheobronchial aspergillosis, invasive aspergillosis, chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, and aspergilloma. Aspergilloma usually results from ingrowths of colonized Aspergillus in damaged bronchial tree, pulmonary cyst or cavities of patients with underlying lung diseases. There are a few reports on endobronchial aspergilloma without underlying pulmonary lesion. ⋯ X-ray and computed tomography scans of chest showed a nodular opacity in superior segment of left lower lobe. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed an irregular, mass-like, brownish material which totally obstructed the sub-segmental bronchus and a foreign body in superior segmental bronchus of the lower left lobe. Histopathologic examinations of biopsy specimen revealed fungal hyphae, characteristic of Aspergillus species.